B road number in Leicester, now A6030

[Ross Spur]

I'm looking for the road number of the B road that is between B6416 and former B582 on the west side of Leicester. It is Wakerley Road and now A6030.

April 1971 OS Quarter inch map https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/ind ... 2&layer=35

Current map https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/ind ... 14&layer=0

It looks like the road was first classified after the opening of the Wakerley Road extension in 1965. I suspect that it changed to A6030 upon the opening in 1969 of the Stoughton Drive extension to Gartree Road (it is shown as an "A" road on the Route Planner map).

[Steven]

Sorry, I haven't been able to find it yet.

It's seemingly missed by all Seventh Series revisions, and by all 1:25k, and by all 1:10k - which is even more annoying as it's on two separate individual Seventh Series sheets (121 and 122). It's ironic that it's caught on both the QI and RPM, but neither are helpful to the query!

[jgharston]

It's not on any of the National Library of Scotland maps, and up to at least 1966 the road doesn't even join each end together! I've checked the 1inch, 6inch, 25inch and 50inch. It looks like you'll have to wait until the 1974 map comes out of copyright, though that might be too late and and show it as the A6030. If I had to guess I'd say it was an extension of the B667.

[Steven]

It's not on any of the National Library of Scotland maps, and up to at least 1966 the road doesn't even join each end together! I've checked the 1inch, 6inch, 25inch and 50inch. It looks like you'll have to wait until the 1974 map comes out of copyright, though that might be too late and and show it as the A6030. If I had to guess I'd say it was an extension of the B667.

The 1971 One Inch sheet 121 as seen on this very website already has A6030 on it, so any later maps won't help unfortunately.

[DavidB]

Looking through some old road atlases I've found something which might just be a clue. I've a 1971 edition of The AA Book of the Road which uses OS Quarter Inch mapping but even though it's the same year as that one from SABRE Maps it shows that road as being the A6030. It also shows the B583 to the west and north-west of the city as the A5125.

However the small city centre plan of Leicester further forward in the book includes part of Fosse Road North (the route of the B583 and the A5125) which just appears in the top left corner. It's still labelled there as the B583 but interestingly it's shown as primary and labelled 'Ring Road'.

Looking again at the SABRE Maps 1971 Quarter Inch edition there's a B-road which runs west-east from the A6 near the northern end of the B583 and across the A46 before heading south and splitting in two just north of the A47. The western branch of the split becomes the B6416 while the eastern one becomes the mystery B-road.

My suggestion is this - was there once a 'B583 Ring Road' which for a short time ran round the western, northern and eastern sides of Leicester before being upgraded to A-road status? Is the mystery road therefore part of that B583 Ring Road?

[Chris Bertram]

The Leicester ring road prior to the outer ring being built was a signed route only; not all of it was on classified roads, as if to emphasise the provisional nature of it. I'm pretty sure that a section through Knighton had no number.